Tag Archives: wednesdaywisdom

Do you consider yourself an effective networker? If this is the case, then I am sure you have heard of the success known as LinkedIn. It is dubbed the social media for working professionals and is a valuable resource to use in order to land the job of your dreams. If you do not have a LinkedIn profile then I highly suggest you start one now and read on how you can use it effectively.

Unlike Facebook, the working networking website, LinkedIn, kind of falls under a different category. While Facebook is seen more as a place where you can create social dialog and bring a community together, LinkedIn focuses on the work environment and produces an environment where employers can find viable employees. In short, Facebook is for pleasure while LinkedIn is for work.

When you start a LinkedIn account, it can be frightening as to how much of your past you will need to refer back to. This is because, in order to use LinkedIn effectively, you need to make sure your profile is fully complete. Employers want to see a full history of your employment; where you went to school; what organizations you were part of; your volunteer experience and the requirements going on. The best candidates are the ones that can make their profile stand out.

Make sure to be active on LinkedIn. This means actively liking people in your network for a post they contribute or congratulating others on a new job. The more active you are on LinkedIn, the more you will stand out in your community. People want engagement and look for others who also take the networking website more seriously. By increasing your presence, you broaden your chances of being recognized by others who are just as active.

Many people post articles relating to the workforce on LinkedIn. This is valuable because it can provide tips to improve yourself as an individual and make you stronger as an employee. We should all try to identify our weaknesses and find ways of overcoming them. Reading job development stories and learning about the current state of affairs increases our brain bank and provides us with the next steps to becoming a better individual.

Using LinkedIn effectively requires effort. You need to take the networking website seriously and be willing to be active and engaging. It is a site that has wide potential for employers in securing a strong employee and for you to make important long-lasting connections. Make it a point to yourself that you want to stand out on this site and in doing so, it can lead to new opportunities for you in the future.

You need to take life day by day and not always feel like you need to have revolutionary ideas pop into your head.

In today’s world, there is a lot of pressure placed on us to be creative. People expect us to have brilliant ideas and new concepts at the helm. This is unreasonable. It is okay to feel uncreative and I want to assure you of that.

People assume that every individual should be churning out ideas. At a person’s beckoning, if you do not have a solid idea, you are looked at as uninventive and boring. Why do we place this kind of pressure on each other?

It is okay to have days when you do not have any ideas. You need to take life day by day and not always feel like you need to have revolutionary ideas pop into your head. The more you can feel this way, the more relaxed you will become. And being relaxed will open up new creative avenues.

If you need some tips with being creative, however, these are things you can do to help you out.

1. RELAX

First and foremost. Relax. Don’t worry about the pressure that others may be placing on you. Just think about being in the here and now. Know that an idea will pop up eventually and even if it does not happen today, it will come. It is inevitable.

2. BRAINSTORM

Set aside a block of time. Maybe 15-30 minutes. In that block of time, free-write and jot down random ideas. Do not judge your idea. Whatever pops up; write it. You can edit later, but the point is to get your initial thought down on paper.

3. USE A FRIEND

Find a friend and spitball with one another. Not only is this a great way to build a social connection with another person but you are utilizing two minds at once! Find someone that you connect with and take the time to use your imagination and see what you can come up with!

Creativity is truly important, but it is not a necessity to be happy. Learn to appreciate the days that you have where you don’t need to worry or feel the need to create something. You can be content with where you are at in life and what you have before you.

You never know where your next job will be so it is crucial that you maintain relations with your coworkers because they may be the key to your next gig.

Before I started to writing this article, I sent a message on Google Chat to a friend I’ve worked with on a previous project. We were great co-workers during our time together but once the job ended, we drifted apart. It was because we were on bad terms, but rather we became too busy leading our own lives that we put less effort into our connection. I thought about him this morning and decided to send this message and funny enough, it felt exhilarating. Even though he has not responded, the fact that I reached out made me feel good. It also reminded me of how important it is to network with people from your past because it can potentially lead to long-lasting relationships in the future.

One of the reasons it is important to network professionally is for you to advance your career. The people you meet in the workforce can help you land future gigs. They may know people who are working in a field that may interest you. They can recommend you to who they know and give you a good start in the process. The people who I have worked with in the past have gotten me year-long freelance jobs that have provided me with a good source of income. You never know where your next job will be so it is crucial that you maintain relations with your coworkers because they may be the key to your next gig.

By connecting and maintaining a relationship with people, you can make new friends. People are social beings and we want to find people we can identify with. You do not want to live a life where you are alone in this world and do not have someone you can rely on. Going into work and meeting new people, especially those who have different values, can open your eyes to the diversity of our world. You may end up finding someone who you completely identify with and can become great friends and will be there with you for the long term. Without networking skills, you might not be able to find such people.

Networking helps improve your social skills and increases your presence in the community. By networking with others, you are putting yourself out there for the world to see. You are overcoming any social anxieties you have and making sure that people see you as a sociable and approachable individual. It is important to stand out in the community because you should be recognized for your abilities and traits. People want to know who you are and if you don’t make an effort to be social, then you might come across as standoffish and unapproachable.

Networking is a fundamental aspect of being in a community. We need to find people to engage with us and when we do find those people, we need to make an earnest effort to continue maintaining those relations. People too often give up on their past connections. But dedicate yourself to making that effort and you’ll soon realize that it can open a lot of doors for you. It is important to network professionally to keep yourself relevant in the world and in your group of friends. Don’t disappear from people.

The outlining method requires each writer to come up with a plan. It is the process after your brainstorming session.

At the Self Starter Guide, we look for tips that can help writers do the best work they can. We all have different writing strategies that we use when we sit down in front of our laptop or notebook. Some people like to free write while others like to know exactly what they are writing before they start. We feel a combination of either style works well, but we tend to gravitate towards knowing what we want to write before starting. We are a huge proponent of the outlining method and encourage everyone to try it when they can. It will ultimately make writing easier for you if you outline your work.

The outlining method requires each writer to come up with a plan. It is the process after your brainstorming session. After you have a bunch of ideas jotted down, you need to organize the ideas in a chronological order so it makes sense to the audience. You need to take the time to think about the sequence in which you explain your story and ensure that it is logical. Outlining is a writer’s map and provides you with a step by step process in your writing.

Thoughts clearly laid out

With an outline, your thoughts are clearly laid out before you. You know the structure of your content and it becomes easier for you to focus on each paragraph because there is a detailed plan. If you were to free write, you’d be combining ideas and sentences that wouldn’t mix well with one another and this can be jarring to the reader.

Ideas are more natural

I find that by outlining, my ideas come about much more naturally. This is common because since we know exactly what we want to talk about in a paragraph, we can focus all of our attention on that one idea. Rather than be focused on something else to talk about, we bring our attention back to the main idea in that paragraph because our outline reminds us to. Without this sense of structure, we can become unsure of what we want to talk about because we have too many ideas running around in our heads.

Less writer’s block

Writer’s block comes less frequently when I outline. That’s because I don’t have to think too much about what I want to write about. Writer’s block is a huge beast in our community that can derail us creatively and affect us emotionally. Anything that you can do to alleviate this is worthwhile to try out. If you outline your work, you will find that there is less pressure placed on you to come up with ideas. Everything has already been organized in a way so that you just have to focus on putting the words down on paper and making it sound good. You become less concerned with encountering writer’s block because you already know exactly what you want to talk about.

Take the time to outline your work and see how it can improve your writing. You may notice your writing will be more fluid and more powerful. It will read better to your audience. Writing is a challenging task and as writers we need to share our trade secrets such as to outline your work, to help other writers endure this process. As a writer, the more prepared you are before you start typing away, the easier it will feel when you finally commit to the task. Outline your work and see your potential grow.

Toastmasters is an organization that unites a community together and helps you improve your public speaking skills.

Going to Toastmasters has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in recent years. It is an organization I have heard about multiple times but never committed to until this past year. As I became more determined to better myself and develop into a stronger individual, I found that Toastmasters would need to play an essential role. Going to Toastmasters helps improve your public speaking skills and shape you into a charismatic and fearless leader.

Toastmasters is an organization that unites a community together and helps you improve your public speaking skills. It has been around for many years and many of its members have vouched for its effective results. As a member for the last year and a half, I can personally say that Toastmasters is not a scam organization and they do their best to help accomplish your goals.

During every Toastmasters meeting, there are a number of pre-determined people who be giving a speech. The speech topic is chosen by the individual but at the same time they are guided by a manual that all members receive at the start of their membership. One by one, each person gives a speech and would later be evaluated by a fellow member. The evaluation provides a way for the speech giver to receive constructive feedback so they can improve themselves for the next speech they give.

During each Toastmasters meeting, besides the speech and the evaluation, there are other times when the members of the meeting get to be interactive. Table Topics, for example, is an impromptu 1-2 minute speech where members are chosen are random to come up to the front of the room and deliver the speech. It can be an extremely nerve-wracking experience due to the unpredictability of the question, but it teaches you to cope with being put on the spot and learn how to stay calm and collective in that situation.

The benefits of going to Toastmasters is numerous. Besides being able to improve your public speaking, the sense of community is apparent. People from around your neighborhood are gathering and putting themselves in the public eye and showing that they are not afraid of public speaking. The level of encouragement from each member is significant. People want you to succeed and improve. They don’t want to see you fail. In addition, by listening to speeches, you become inspired by what people write and find new tricks that you can implement into your own writing.

By going to Toastmasters to improve your public speaking, you willstart to notice the benefits of being a good public speaker. Not only do most jobs require an individual to be able to speak publicly and clearly, but being a socially dynamic individual improves your standing in your company. Public speaking allows you to build your confidence and makes you more noticeable in the workforce. You demonstrate leadership by being able to be firm in the point you want to say and people can feel you are reliable, based on your public speaking abilities. There are many more benefits to being a public speaker but if wanting to be more respected is crucial to you, then Toastmasters can help.

There are many branches around the country and it is a matter of taking the time to search for the one that fits your neighborhood and schedule. If you go towww.toastmasters.org, you will see an option to search for local Toastmasters in your vicinity. It is important to improve ourselves and going to Toastmasters to improve your public speaking skills, can be a great start.

This is a new strategy that we are working with here at the Self Starter Guide. We are fundamentally a self-improvement blog that wants to improve your life in any way we can. We focus on topics such as health to combatting low self-esteem to giving productivity and career advice as well as being a resource for writers. For the first six months of this blog we were writing about any ideas that popped up into our heads but we soon realized that it felt monotonous writing about similar topics over and over again and that there were so many blog posts that were too closely related. We needed to combat this and decided that a great writing tip to have would be to write about different topics on specific days.

At the Self Starter Guide, we come out with posts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So every Monday from here on out, we will alternate between posts abouts Productivity and Health & Wellness. On Wednesday, we focus on Writing Tips and Business Development. Finally Friday, it will cater to Personal Improvement and Creativity. As you can see, each day has a topic dedicated to it. We find that this process will freshen up the minds of our readers at the Self Starter Guide.

The biggest improvement that we have seen at the Self Starter Guide with this writing tip is how fresh our creative minds feel. Before it felt like we were dragging. We were constantly repeating ourselves. But now, we are able to come up with new posts and feel excited about writing. If you find yourself struggling with your blog and don’t know what to come up with next, decide to limit yourself to writing about different topics on specific days. You might witness what we are feeling here and it can make your writing process easier.

Writing can be a challenge that we struggle with especially when it comes to idea formations and feeling innovative. When we feel like we are lacking in ideas and not sure what to write, we encounter writer’s block. By writing about different topics on specific days, our mind feels more rejuvenated. It becomes easier to write. You feel more inspired and it’ll lead to more productive content and ultimately, more readership for your blog.

Get yourself to follow this writing tip and see how it can help. Make a plan and to write about a topic on a specific day and see yourself glow with enthusiasm when it comes time to write. Long gone are the days where you are unsure of what to write next. You can feel prepared in your blogging and writing career when you have a sense of what to write about next and not have to worry. We hope that your blog improves and gets great new content as a result of writing about topics on specific days.

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Who is Self-Starter Anh?

My name is Anh Phan and I am a self-starter and life coach. I provide the tools you need to get things done. Join my community which encourages members to support each other in a positive manner. I can help you foster happiness in your life. I am revolutionizing what it means to be productive and content with what we already have. Let me help you become a self-starter! Read more here